janweb

We, husband + 3 children, are hoping to get to nz in the not too distant future. I am a nurse and my husband is a design studio manager. We have two children of our own and one by my previous relatonship. She is 13 and does not see her father as he married and felt it better to have a clean slate! Although he does pay child support for her. We were not married and he has never applied for 'parental responsibilty'. Do I still need his permission for her to emigrate? We have already changed her surname by deedpole to the family name and we did not need his permission for that.

Also, we can't decide between North island and South island, any tips would be great.

So many more questions!
Thanks for your time.

earlswood

Hi janweb,

We are applying to OZ and I have 2 children from a previous marriage, my eldest son is 17 and daughter 14, we have been told that although I have sole custody I have to get a sworn agreement from their father certified to say they can leave the UK as they are under 18.

Earlswood

janweb

Thanks for your reply. How soon in the process will I need to do this. I have a nasty suspicion that he may try to block it even though he doesn't see her. What happens if he doesn't agree?

Jan

earlswood

If you are filling in the 47sk you will probably need to send it with your other certified documents.

If my ex tries to block it I've decided to call his bluff with "Oh well were going anyway so you'll just have to have them back"!

Sounds cruel and I wouldn't do it in a million years but I know him and he'd sign rather than have responsibility.

Other than that have you had a free chat with a solicitor??

Earlswood

janweb

Do solicitors do free? I have tried this option for previous questions only to be referred to another solicitor who, very sorry,madam, does not do free consultations!

Scarlett G

[Also, we can't decide between North island and South island, any tips would be great.]


If I were you do a search on this forum to find out all the stories about the different areas. There are a couple of good posts on at the moment about the best places/where are people going to live in NZ

earlswood

Try the yellow pages,

A couple of years ago I managed to get an initial telephone call with a local solicitor free, I got an answer that I needed so didn't need to pay for futher consultation.
If you have a court order for maintainance try asking the court?

Earlswood

r.bartlett

there is a website which gives out a telephone number to phone an online solicitor -it's charged at a pound a minute to but maybe an easier way of doing it..

cheers

richard

Boomie

Hiya

My ex has not see my three older girlrs for 7 years, paid no child support the debt of 25 grand to the csa was squashed!!!! - in 2001 we decided we wanted to migrate to Oz and so we looked into it.

we went to see a solicitor who told us that we could not migrate without the ex's permission even though we did not know where he was because if at some point he traced us in oz we would have to come back for a court case - he would not get anywhere but wouuld prove to be an unwanted expence!!!!! But we could of got leave from the court if he was untraceable - which was the case.

But we decided to go a step further Andy has adopted the three girls. it took 8 months to do and they have taken his name and got new birth certificates - which means that the ex no longer has any parental responsibility - or as my daughter has just corrected me RIGHTS - cus he showed no responsibility b4.

All we had to do was speak individually to a soc. worker and have police checks done to prove suitable parents.

They did interiew my ex mother in law who told them that he was somewhere in London - London is a big place so they took it no further!!!!!!!

There was nothing that the mother in law could do to prevent the adoption from going ahead and all correspondace was sent to her address for ex incase he showed up prior to the hearing.

Like I said it took 8 months - the best 300 quid we spent!!!!!!

All adoption papers have to be sent with your visa application and cert. copies of birth certificates too.

Love Lisa

tinaj

I had a similar problem last year when I applied.

You definately need to get an Affadavit ( sworn statement) or a signed letter of agreement from their Father if they are under 18.
You don't need to send this off with your application, but they will ask for it before they issue the visa to you.

You can type the affadavit up yourself and just take it to the solicitors where the Father signs it and they witness it. Failing this you could just get him to write a letter stating that he has no objections to them living abroad.

Australia and NZ abide by this procedure to prevent child abductions, which in the long run is a good thing.

If the Father won't agree you will have to apply to your Family Court and seek their permission to take the kids abroad. If he doesn't see the kids it should not be a problem. It costs £80 to apply for hearing.

Hopefully he will agree, he might be keener when he realises that he will not have to pay any child support once the children are out of the country!! I think this helped my ex come to his decision!!

Keep positive I thought my ex would NEVER agree, he has made my life as tricky as possible for 12 years but, he agreed. I did offer him a package to help persuade him, a free flight out periodically etc.


PM me if you want further details

ellen1

well what a coincidence! i have just got back from my solicitor about the very same subject.

it cost me £150.00 for an hr consultation and what a waste of money, i knew more than her about the parental consent when migrating!

i have 3 children with whom i need their "fathers" consent. yes 3 seperate fathers (5 children, 3 marriges, 3 fathers) . Only my youngest has contact with her father and he said he would give consent as long as i drop the maintainance claim. my older childrens father has said the same but one father who his son or i have not seen since the marrige ended (11 yrs ago, he also wanted a clean slate!) i have only a small idea of where he is.
i have been advised by solicitor to get a private eye to find him, to get the consent,other wise it would be very difficult for a court to give an order without his consent or i have to show proof that i have done my best to trace him.

My solicitor has asked me to get in toch with DIIMA to find out what needs to be put in the affridavid, then she will write it and contact the fathers.

so like i said a complete waste of money, and i still have to do all the work!

Has any one had to use an afridavid, if so how was it worded?

cheer
ellen

Mandyisere

My solicitor is applying to the courts for me to get sole responsibility for the children, they haven't had any contact with their father for 7 years, according to her because he has made no attempt to contact them or pay maintenance then thats proof enough of lack of interest on his part.
I made the point that his parents had sold their business and moved on, his sister had married and was in the army somewhere!!
Our 18 month marriage wasn't long enough for us to build any mutual friends plus there is a court order on him to pay maintenance and every time i've pushed the courts to get it their reply is that they can't find him, so if they can't i'm sure i can't.
I doubt that he'd agree anyway just for the pure hell of it and i have no intention of him messing with our lives a second time.
Mandy

tinaj

If you Pm me I will send you the wording used on mine. It was all stipulated by the solicitor.

DIMIA do not have a specific requirement for wording, rather just a need to see some sort of proof of permission.

janweb

Thanks for all your replies. However I think that all replies involved marriage to the errant fathers, which we were NOT! My husband did apply for parental responsibility and was awarded it. Does this not count for anything now?

Slippers

As a nurse, you will have a pretty wide choice of location. You should consider being guided by where your husband can find the work he wants to do.